


A Delicate Balance

by polgara



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, due South
Genre: Gen, Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-01-06
Updated: 2016-03-31
Packaged: 2018-01-07 19:21:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,827
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1123462
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/polgara/pseuds/polgara
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Eight years after Buffy had thought she had saved the world, she learned she had damned it instead.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: #364 - Dystopia - LJ Comm Taming The Muse
> 
> Disclaimer: I own none of these characters, settings, or fandoms. They are the property of their respective creators and companies. 
> 
>  
> 
> A/N: Um, yeah. Nothing really like my normal stuff.
> 
>  
> 
> A/N2: This fic is noted as a non-crossover, however, if you squint very hard and are familiar with a really obscure fandom, you'll see hints of one. A virtual cookie to anyone who sees it.

Prompt: #364 - Dystopia  
Rating: PG  
Disclaimer: I own none of these characters, settings, or fandoms. They are the property of their respective creators and companies.  
Summary: Eight years after Buffy had thought she had saved the world, she learned she had damned it instead.

 

A/N: Um, yeah. Nothing really like my normal stuff. I know there are tense changes all over the place, but it's been a hell week and barely got this written and my brain can see it, but can't seem to fix it. Feel free to point out any and all mistakes. :)

 

( Collapse )

 

Five years. 

That's all it had taken. 

Followed by a three year descent into hell. Almost literally. 

Really, Buffy should have seen it coming. She knew all about the checks and balances in the system she had been 'Chosen' into. Hell, that's what had allowed the First to break through in the outset. Willow messed around with powers she should have stayed away from to bring her back and it further upset the delicate balance of good vs evil. Things were already shaky with two active slayers in play but that tilted the scales just enough to allow the First through. 

Seems like something she should have remembered. 

But at the time she had been tired. Despite what she had told the First Slayer all those years ago, she was alone. Her friends were great, and she wouldn't trade them for anything in the world despite the difficulties they had that last year in Sunnydale, but they looked to her. She was the one expected to stand at the gates of hell and hold back the tide. She was the one they forced to make decisions and then protested when they weren't the ones they were expecting. 

Tired. So very tired. 

So she had made the decision to activate all the slayers. Stop the tide of demons from entering their dimension. An army to match the one the other side had in abundance. Create others like her so she wouldn't be so alone. 

What she should have done was remember the balance. 

In the beginning, things had gone well. They rebuilt the Watcher's Council, rounded up all of the new slayers, provided them training, and then sent them out into the world against evil. Apocalypses had been stopped before they could even begin. The streets were safer at night all over the world. She had truly thought they were making a difference. Making things better for all of mankind. 

She should have remembered that her luck didn't run like that. 

In a small corner of the world, an apocalypse happened five years after Sunnydale. One they hadn't seen coming. One they didn't see happen. 

One they didn't stop. 

They hadn't noticed a change at first. Then one slayer disappeared, followed by another, and then another. A year later their numbers had been reduced by half. It took another two years for the Earth to descend into madness where the demons ruled the streets and the vampires hunted with freedom at night. 

Eight years after Buffy had thought she had saved the world, she learned she had damned it instead.

Now she spent her days visiting city after city with her sister, trying to keep the resistance alive. They slipped through the streets taking out the occasional demon as they rounded up resources for each given city's enclave. The nights were spent in the relative safety of the communal structures that those who had refused to lay themselves down had constructed. 

Some cities were doing better than others. Chicago had even managed to have decent amenities, although she was sure that had more to do with the Mountie they had helping to run things. Every time she had visited them, she managed to fully relax within their walls, rare feat these days. She was able to close her eyes and get a full night's rest without feeling that she needed to keep one eye open for trouble. 

She tried to learn what exactly they were doing there that was different from the other cities across what had once been a great country. But they took the same precautionary measures that everyone else did, the same number of slayers on hand, and the same shift rotations. Yet, they were different. 

Buffy was still convinced it was the damn Mountie. Where he had come from, she wasn't sure, but something about his presence was soothing. 

And yet, at night she would lie in her cot and considered the fallacy of continuing the fight. If it was making any sort of difference for anyone and if things would ever get better. If it was right to continue giving the people hope of a victory. She was pretty certain they had lost this world, if not the dimension, due to her loneliness. 

While she no longer felt alone, she truly wondered if that decision she had made all those years ago had been worth it.


	2. Walltop Confessions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> **Prompt** : [image](https://www.flickr.com/photos/trees_are/3946997067)   
> **Challenge** : Picfor1000 - given an image and write 1000 word fic based off of it.
> 
> **Summary** : Nothing about this conversation is going the way Buffy thought it would.

The sun had just started to set causing the horizon to turn glorious shades of gold and red with streaks into the darkening sky overhead. Buffy stood on the wall encircling the Chicago compound and stared out over the city and watched the lights slowly begin to switch on in sporadic clumps in the darkened buildings. In the beginning it had surprised her that the demons and vampires were putting forth the effort to keep the power plants running, but then she remembered how much Spike had loved watching television and guessed that he wasn't the only one out there. 

Some days it was just hard for her to comprehend that this half life was all that was left for her. All those years she spent in Sunnydale wishing she could just be a normal girl to fit in with her peers were now wasted time. What she should have done was be thankful for what was her normal, no matter how different it was from everyone else. To appreciate the ignorance of the general public about the horrors that truly lurked in the dark and be proud of her part to protect them. 

Nowadays she educated children about how to evade and hide from demons if the human compound was ever attacked. She taught teenagers who hadn't grown up on a hellmouth the best techniques for a quick kill to help protect the same children who she taught to hide. Parents were now concerned about how to keep their children safe from everything that went bump in the night rather than asking them about their grades or worried about what happened on prom night. 

Innocence. 

All that innocence was lost. 

There were days that she spent time wondering if there wasn't something more she could do to fix these things she had broken. Then other days that she wondered if it was even worth fighting for this little bit of existence. But she also knew it wasn't in her to lay down arms and give up. 

The sun was a bare sliver in the distance when Buffy turned to go in only to startle when she realized she wasn't alone on the wall as she had previously thought. “How do you do that?” She snapped. 

“Do what?” He asked in legitimate confusion. 

“Sneak up on me. I have like super hearing and you are always scaring me.” 

“I do apologize, Buffy, that has never been my intention. I'm afraid that moving silently was part of my training as a Mountie and old habits die hard,” he said with a rueful smile as he ducked his head with embarrassment. 

She sighed and waved her hand in dismissal. “It's okay, I'm just not used to it is all. Did you need something?” She asked, trying to ease the awkwardness. 

“Not entirely. I do come up here occasionally to survey how many buildings are still occupied in the city and judge if we've made any headway.” 

“How are you doing?” She asked, her gaze involuntarily drifting back to the city. 

He shrugged. “There are days where it is truly hard to discern. But that wasn't my reason for joining you this particular evening.” 

Buffy's eyes narrowed as she turned back to him. “It wasn't?” 

“No. Ray wanted me to make sure you came in for dinner. I'm afraid he was rather insistent.” 

“Ray does know that I can take care of myself, right? I mean, I'm not exactly helpless.” 

“Oh, he is fully aware. I, myself, have reminded him of that same fact many times over,” he said, removing his hat and running his fingers absently over the brim. “However, when Ray decides that someone truly needs help, he will go overboard in taking care of them. He takes this role very seriously.” 

Buffy could feel her jaw drop slightly. “I thought,” she began, only to falter to formulate her thoughts into anything coherent enough to speak. 

“I know Ray seems rather rough on the outside, but inside he truly is quite a gentle soul,” he continued as if she hadn't tried to speak. “One could do worse than Ray Kowalski.” 

“Are you trying...” Buffy attempted again, only to falter once more. 

“But he would greatly appreciate your company for dinner this evening,” he concluded, doing his level best not to look at her. 

The tiny blonde could only stare at him in amazement for several long awkward moments before she finally got the gears in her brain turning to form complete thoughts. “Ray wants to have dinner with me?” 

“I thought I had made that quite clear.” 

“Yeah, but I had always assumed that the two of you were together. I mean, you have always been so close and your body language has always suggested it,” she nearly stammered out. 

One hand raised and his thumb rubbed at one eyebrow. “Well, yes, there is that. But don't let that stop you.” 

“Wait! Just wait a minute!” Buffy said, throwing her hands up. “The two of you are together?” 

“Yes.” 

“But you were practically pitching him to me as a hook up!” 

“Yes.” 

It was too much and Buffy's legs wobbled once before giving out on her and dumping her on the ground. He rushed over and crouched in front of her, a bare outline in the dying strands of sunlight. 

“I'm confused,” she whispered, staring at a point beyond his shoulder.

“Yes, well, Ray has that effect on people as well,” he said with a soft sound of laughter. “But I promise if you come down to dinner, he'll explain everything that I seem to be unable to get out. I warned him that I probably wasn't best suited for this.” 

Buffy let out a hysterical shriek as he helped her up. “Probably not.” 

“One day he'll finally figure that out,” he assured her, guiding her to the stairs. 

“You know, I don't even know how you ended up in Chicago.” 

“Well, it all started with the death of my father...”


End file.
